Drabbles
by Antigone2
Summary: Drabbles from various prompts. Started out as ones from SailorMoonland on LJ but expanded. Many characters, timelines, seasons.
1. Cancer: a Crab

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

Week 1: Cancer (as in the astrological sign!)  
><strong>a. Crab<strong>

Yaten was just leaving school when Minako caught up with him and they began to walk in step.

She smiled at him, "I'm going to try out a new ice cream place that just opened. Won't you join me?"

"No." He turned away from blue eyes.

"Why not? It'd be fun!" That girl was nothing if not persistent.

"Can't." By that time he had caught up to his bandmates at the gates of Juuban high.

"Ah, sorry, Minako-chan. We have practice right now," Seiya explained.

"Oh. Okay." Minako said, "Jeeze, Yaten, you coulda just said that." She laughed, "Honestly, sometimes you are such a lobster!" Waving and winking, the blonde merrily skipped away.

"A… lobster?" Yaten was mystified.

"I think she meant to say crab," Taiki said, "A crab – like a grumpy person."

"You have to admit," Seiya smiled, "that was pretty cute."

Yaten scowled and turned away, pulling his sunglasses back over his eyes, "I don't have to admit anything."


	2. Cancer: b Water

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

**Week 1: Cancer (astrological sign)  
><strong>

**b. Water**

"Okay!" Usagi said, proudly, setting the dish down on the table in front of her friends, "It's done! Please enjoy it!"

The inner senshi exchanged looks amongst themselves. Together, they had faced down the most dangerous of villains, saved the word countless times, even died together. But this was almost asking too much.

"You guys," the girl in front of them whined, "Trust me! Curry rice is, like, the one thing I can do good!"

Makoto usually had the biggest soft spot for the odangoed blonde, but she was still eyeing the total disaster her kitchen had become, her left eye twitching ever-so-slightly. So it was dear Minako who gave Usagi a beautiful, kind smile before lifting a spoon to her lips. "Itadakimasu!" she said, calling upon all her acting skills to look delighted and eager as she took a huge bite. Not to be outdone, Rei, Makoto and Ami quickly followed suit.

"So," eagerly, Usagi leaned in with clasped hands and a big, hopeful smile across her face, "how is it? Tasty?"

"Sp-spicy!" Minako cried, her eyes filling with tears and face turning red. "Water!" she cried, running into the kitchen and grabbing a glass to fill.

Makoto ran into the bathroom and stuck her mouth under the tap.

Ami grabbed a water bottle from her bag and quickly drank down the cool liquid as quickly as she could.

Rei shrugged and helped herself to another spoonful. "I like it."


	3. Cancer: c Compassion

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

****Week 1: Cancer (astrological sign)**  
><strong>

**c. Compassion**

"That's not Usagi, you know," Sailor Mars said, darkly.

The senshi regarded the frozen queen. Tuxedo Kamen had disappeared after Prince Demando and Sailor Moon; the senshi were waiting with baited breath for their return. The hologram king had taken Chibi-Usa to another part of the castle, perhaps to remove her from the nervous energy surrounding the soldiers.

Unable to stay still, they had found themselves wandering the halls until they found the crystal coffin that housed the motionless form of the woman King Endymion had called Neo-Queen Serenity.

"Yes it is," Sailor Venus said, confused, "You heard the king, he said that was Usagi in the future."

"She looks nothing like her," Mars huffed, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.

"What are you talking about? She looks just like her," Sailor Jupiter countered, "just older."

"Please, Usagi? Queen? Hmph, queen of donuts maybe," Mars rolled her eyes, "I don't believe it for a second."

"Will you listen to yourself?" Jupiter said, "Look around you. Look what happened here! Have some compassion."

"That's not Usagi, lying there. It's just not!" Mars' voice broke and her eyes filled with tears. "YOU have some compassion!"

And she turned on her heel and left the room. It was a few moments before Sailor Mercury found her and put an arm around her shoulder.

"We've all seen Usagi sleeping," Mars said softly, "If that's Usagi, she –she's not asleep." Mars scrubbed roughly at the tears on her face.

There was a long moment of silence.

"Let's go see if we can find Chibi-Usa and everyone else," Mercury finally said. Not another word was spoken in the silent crystal halls for a long while.


	4. Cancer: d Moon

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

****Week 1: Cancer (astrological sign)**  
><strong>

**d. Moon**

"I guess things didn't work out exactly how you thought, huh?" Usagi said.

"How do you mean?" Mamoru asked.

She leaned her arms on his balcony as twilight fell over the city, "You were searching for the nijizuishou and ginzuishou because you thought it might lead you to discover the years you had forgotten as Chiba Mamoru." She looked out over the city, a rueful smile playing on her lips, "Instead you find out about this whole other life from a thousand years ago."

"And then it got you injured, and kidnapped, and killed. Then, you forget everything and finally get to lead a normal life and I didn't leave you alone for that," she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, "I was never good at staying away from you. In any lifetime. Sorry."

"Are you really sorry?" he asked with a half-smile. He took a step closer and she forced her eyes back to the city streets below, even as he brushed a wayward strand of hair back from her ear. Even though his nearness was so distracting, she wanted to finish what she had to say.

"Anyway, I know you didn't find what you wanted and you found a million things more." She turned to him and bounced on her toes, hands fluttering around her skirt nervously and she gave him a half shrug, "You were looking for one gemstone and instead you got the whole moon. That's life, huh?"

Actually, she never got to say the last three words because he was already kissing her, but that's okay. They both got their points across.

* * *

><p>ps. oh god I used to write these two together as my main Sailor Moon fic couple and now I can't even. :( Why? they are <span>so cute<span> and I just lost it. I guess I should practice more.


	5. Cancer: e Gentle

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

******Week 1: Cancer (astrological sign)****  
><strong>

**e. Gentle**

"Um, what?" Rei looked at Minako like she'd grown another head. Across the room, Mamoru and Ami had looked up from Ami's biochemistry homework with nearly identical quizzical expressions. Makoto grinned.

"I said," Minako sounded frustrated at having to repeat herself, "Rei, do you want me to try to put your hair into odango?"

"That's what I thought you said!" Makoto cried out happily, as if her entire week was just made.

"Where did that suggestion even that even come from?" Rei asked.

"Where do any of Minako's ideas come from?" Ami countered.

"I know how to do it! Usagi showed me in case I had to impersonate her again," Minako chirped.

"I think it'd be fun," Makoto said, "You should do it. Why not? You just said you were bored. I wanna see Rei with odangos!"

Without waiting for an answer from Rei, Minako had whipped out a hair brush, hair ties, pins, and spray, "Okay! I think I can totally do this!"

"Wait – you THINK?" Rei's worried look was soon hidden by a cloud of hairspray.

"Minako, that hurts!" Rei cried, "You are pulling my hair! MINAKO! This can't be right! Wussy Usagi would never do this every morning if it hurt like this! BE GENTLE!"

Soon the cloud of hairspray drifted away and sure enough Rei was left with Usagi-esq odango'ed hair.

Everyone was shocked into silence.

"I feel as if I am looking upon something truly unholy," Mamoru finally said.

"Oh my god!" a new voice came from the doorway of the room, "Rei-chan!" Usagi gapped at her friend's new hairstyle. "You look SO CUTE!"

* * *

><p>I wish I could fanart.<p> 


	6. Cancer: f Defense

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

******Week 1: Cancer (astrological sign)****  
><strong>

**f. Defense**

(PGSM)

Every time Usagi shut her eyes she saw them unconscious after the attack in the church, clutching each other's hands. The bittersweet ache in her chest and behind her eyes burned with something she refused to identify and couldn't bear to dwell on.

She forced Hina's kind voice and beautiful face into her mind every time she thought of Mamoru.

She forced the image of Mamoru running to Hina into her heart every time it beat for him.

She forced herself to believe that Hina and Mamoru should be together.

She forced herself to believe they loved each other.

It was her only defense.

* * *

><p>oh, Hina. Did anyone else feel like that was just tacked on? Because every J-drama ever needs an awkward love triangle? And who does that anyway? "Oh, I'll adopt you. But only if you marry my daughter in 20 years." Because, do you think your daughter will be that inherently undesirable when she's an adult? And, also, just <em>what<em>?


	7. Cancer: g Heritage

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

******Week 1: Cancer (astrological sign)****  
><strong>

**g. Heritage**

He knew somehow that it was morning back home, and the mist was lifting over the sparse terrain of Nemesis, revealing the spiny succulents and woody tendrils of the few plants that managed to grow in the acidic soil and the shadows of the crags and valleys where interstellar radiation didn't burn or destroy. Grew, that is, but didn't thrive. Nothing thrived on Nemesis except want.

Prince Demando sipped from wine glass. The vintage was good, grapes from Earth, bursting with memories of sunlight and wind and fresh wet rain. The bottle had been raided from Crystal Tokyo after the attack on the city.

"We are ready to begin the mission to locate the Rabbit," a voice behind him said, "and once and for all claim our final victory over Earth."

A smile came to his mouth, but the white prince did not turn. "Very good, Saffir," he said smoothly, "Keep me appraised as things progress. Soon we will be able to truly reap all the spoils of our war."

On Nemesis, things only came to those who were strong enough to take what they wanted and fight off those who would take from them.

Nemesis may be his princely heritage, but Earth was what he deserved. Yes, Earth -Crystal Tokyo - that was to be Demando's true birthright.


	8. Leo: b Fire

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

(I didn't do all of Leo)

****Week 2: Leo  
><strong>**

b. Fire

"I need you to burn this," Usagi thrust a paper bag into Rei's hands. The blonde looked tired, worried, pale… they all did. With ChibiUsa in the hands of the Dark Moon Clan and destruction they'd seen wrought on the future world still fresh on their minds, no one was getting much rest lately.

"What even is this?" Rei peered into the bag, only seeing a hint of shimmering white, gleaming silk.

Usagi shrugged, "I was wearing this when I woke up in Demando's castle." When her friend's eyes widened in horror, Usagi kept babbling to avoid further discussion of the topic. "Which sucks because I liked the outfit I was wearing before and I don't know what happened to it. Anyway, when I detransformed I was still in this stupid thing and I hate it and never want to see it again so. Burn it for me. Don't use the sacred fire but ya know. You are a pyro so just, like, I figured you'd do it for me."

Rei's hands tightened around the bag until her knuckles turned white. "Okay. Yeah. I'll take care of it."

"You don't need to tell anyone else anything," Usagi waved her hand dismissively, "You know, we have enough to worry about." The priestess nodded silently.

"So. Bye!" Usagi waved and was gone in a flash of blonde pigtails.

Rei watched her go in silence.

She burned the dress. To ash.


	9. Leo c Charisma

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

(I didn't do all of Leo)

****Week 2: Leo****

c. Charisma

Giggles and shrieks rose up from the courtyards, echoing around marble walls and filling the crystal palace with cheer. Children played games with rules they created on the spot, spinning until dizzy and rhyming with claps and jumps and bouncing balls. It was a sound that would make adults smile as they passed by. It made Small Lady frown. Her hazel eyes filled with tears and soft hair like cotton candy clouds fell over her face.

She could only stand awkwardly, arms crossed over her chest, knees together, head down. They never asked her to play, they never extended invites to join in songs or games with the young princess. Did they fear her power? Did they think her strange? Or was it merely a lack of charisma, not knowing how to greet someone with a smile or a genuine warmth from her eyes?

She had saved the entire city from ruin! And yet no one still wanted to be her friend. But it was then that her mother came up to her, placed a hand on her shoulder and asked her if she'd like to return to the 20th century. Perhaps she could learn there what she couldn't here. And yes, she would.


	10. Leo e Warm

These are a series of drabbles I did for the Sailormoonland community on LJ. Some of them I like better than others, but hell, it's my first attempt into fanfic in like ten years so I'm putting on here. :-P

(I didn't do all of Leo)

****Week 2: Leo****

e. Warm

Usagi remembered when they were so close as to share a mind, and she was never embarrassed to just spout out whatever inane idea came into her head. Now, she had to guard her words so carefully, and she was never good at secrets. So she had to keep her distance just to avoid giving something away, and then she was just so busy and she had her other friends, and Chibi Usa and Mamoru and it all got away from her.

When she'd run into her old friend on the train, they'd decided to stop into a coffee shop and get some cake and milkshakes for old time's sake. She realized there might not have been much to talk about, but somehow they ended up just sharing memories and stories and laughing together and it was warm and happy and wonderful.

Sometimes, in the beam of Naru's warm smile, she was just Tsukino Usagi again. And it was so nice.


	11. Chapter 11

So I was having some writer's block. Awesome Kyralih gave me some prompts. Here's what came out of it.

_pre-Timewalker!Chibi-Usa is jealous, Serenity steps in to try to help her see the light_

* * *

><p>The thread started small, peeking out from the hem of her icy pink dress, but by the time the princess was through with it, it was as long as her arm and pulling longer still. Strong and silky like a strand of her own glossy pink hair, Small Lady dispassionately tugged as the seam feel open from the frothy skirt and the thread came free and wound completely around her young hand, leaving an open tear in her skirt as wide as her knee.<p>

"Oops," she mumbled sarcastically, chewing a lip. The children sang from the courtyard below the open-air hall and the adults nearby laughed as they shared a story from earlier in the day.

"Are you hoping to add to your list of today's offensives?" The unexpected lilt of the voice made the princess jump to her feet, eyes wide and hands suddenly splayed at her sides.

"M-mother!" she curtsied and didn't lift her face from the shining white marble of the crystal hallway, "I was expecting father to come scold me for earlier-"

Neo-Queen Serenity shrugged slightly, titled her head and sat down on the edge of the bench the princess had just vacated. She indicated her daughter should join her.

Small Lady felt more nervous now than before – pushing that snobby ambassador's kid into the mud was definitely a punishable offense, but sending her _mother_ to talk to her. This was more serious than she thought.

"So," the elder Serenity said conversationally, as she smoothed her skirt and looked up over the castle to the purpling sky, "why, exactly, did you act so unlady-like today?"

Small Lady wrinkled her nose and sighed. If she were sitting here with her dad, she knew just what she'd say – that the stupid girl had deserved it for being so worried about how she looked all the time, that the other kids were laughing and leaving Small Lady out of their play, that she was sick and tired of being _special_ of being _different_ and that being called a_ freak_ was the straw that broke the camel's back. She knew he'd scold her and send her to her room for the rest of the night and everything would be fine tomorrow.

But with her mother.

Small Lady just had no idea.

"I- I asked to join their stupid four-square game."

"I see."

"And she said no."

"Ah."

"Everyone likes her," Small Lady complained, "and I don't know how she does it." Her eyes narrowed and filled with unshed tears. "And she doesn't seem to care much about my feelings."

"That doesn't sound very fair."

"It—isn't."

"She's sure not to like you now that you've pushed her into the mud." Serenity mused, still looking up at the sky, not at her daughter.

"No," Small Lady sighed. Then her small shoulders hunched up to her ears, and she swallowed. And murmured something so quietly Serenity barely caught it. "She's pretty."

"The girl you pushed?"

"Pretty like you." Knees pushed into her chest, arms wrapped around legs, and hazel eyes closed tightly. "They said 'she should be the queen's daughter'." Behind the darkness of her eyelids Small Lady heard her mother gasp.

"Nobody said that!"

"They did!"

She was gathered into an embrace against cool silk and warm arms and the small girl didn't move lest it break. It was so rare to be hugged like this by her mother. "I'll push them in the mud," Serenity muttered, to the reward of watery giggles from her young daughter.

"You are beautiful," her mother whispered into her hair. "Long lashes, sweet face, and thick, soft hair – but more importantly: Quick to laugh and stubborn when you care and clever and brave and earnest –"

"No one says I should be your daughter."

"That's because you already are," Serenity pushed her to arms length and looked into Small Lady's eyes with a half-smile. "Trust me. I see myself in you everyday. Only the best parts."

"What about when you are mad at me?"

"Oh, then it's your father I'm seeing." Serenity said. Small Lady smiled, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"You are not off the hook, young lady. You will need to apologize," Serenity said sternly, "Officially and publicly. Do you realize the extra work we all had to do to smooth things over after that little stunt?"

"Yes, ma'am." She looked down at her feet, feeling guilty that she didn't feel more guilty.

But for more moments like that with her mother, she'd push a thousand spoiled children in the mud.


	12. Chapter 12

Prompt #2

_Word of Earth's tumultuous feelings towards the Moon Kingdom have reached lunar ears, and Venus goes to Endymion to break things off between him and her beloved Princess._

* * *

><p>The study was a relatively small room, and generally dark, and very cluttered. There was no point in ever attempting organization or straightening, since every few days one of the four kings would stomp in and sweep everything off the table and toss down a new map, unfold a new plan over the old, or simply pile papers and books on one side of the room to make room for new ones. Keeping everything in its place was a waste of time. It was a place for brainstorming, thinking, arguing and discussing.<p>

Or, in this case, brooding. Prince Endymion stood over his desk with intense concentration, but not really seeing the papers scattered over it.

"So you are back from the north."

When Venus spoke, it startled him so much he jumped up and put his hand on his sword hilt instinctively.

At the gesture, she narrowed her eyes as if insulted and raised one perfect eyebrow. She didn't lift her hand from her uniformed waist. The blonde senshi stood framed in the room's one window, brilliant against the bruised evening sky.

"How the hell-" the prince sputtered.

The room had one window, one door, and it opened off of Endymion's private chambers – there was no need for security. At least, not usually.

"Let's leave the questions to me. Shall we?"

Sailor Venus spoke to Endymion rarely, and usually not unkindly. She usually saved the frustrated scolding to be hissed into her princess's ear, as she ferried the younger girl off, hand on her elbow, golden hair mingling with silver in the Earth's wind.

But now the senshi's voice was hard as steel, smooth as gold and Endymion realized this was how she must sound when sent on official business from the Queen of the Silver Millennium, not as a princess's friend and co-conspirator, but as an ambassador of worlds.

Endymion was no stranger to politics, and knew with a sick feeling that news given in secret was hardly ever good.

You went north," Venus said, again, almost conversationally. She ran gloved finger along the window sill. "You were in talks."

He didn't ask how she knew. The Silver Millennium always knew.

They always knew everything.

"Of course I talked with them. They are still my people," he answered sharply.

"They want war," she snapped.

"Their lives are hard," Endymion said, "they look for someone to blame-"

"Somehow their blame shifted from you," Venus' voice was almost studiously ponderous, as she turned cornflower blue eyes out the window, to the rising half-moon and its bright, twinkling companion on the horizon. "To us."

"It wasn't my doing," Endymion answered, but Venus held up her hand to silence him.

"It doesn't matter," she said, and for a moment her veneer cracked and her eyes looked sympathetic. "Prince Endymion, they want to attack our kingdom and you were in _talks_ with them."

It was the like the room was being slowly drained of air, Endymion was finding it hard to gather his breath, to explain himself. "How else am I –"

"Don't you realize the Moon Kingdom sees this as a near declaration of war?"

Her words cut through straight through him, and he was shocked into silence for a few moments. "How is that possible?" he said, but Venus just shook her head.

"Chalk it up to cultural differences. Fear. We don't fully trust you, Prince, nobody knows which side you are on-"

"The princess-"

"Is fifteen years old." Venus shook her head, "nobody listens to her, and if they did, what would she say that wouldn't make it _worse_ for you?"

And the air was gone, the room was tilting and Endymion struggled to maintain his gaze on Venus, on the bow in her hair, the piping on her glove, something to anchor himself before he was swept away in what she was implying.

"Are you saying they will declare war because I was in peace talks during a civil war on my own planet?" he managed to say. War with Serenity's kingdom was a nightmare he couldn't face, had spent every waking moment trying to avoid since going north to calm the rage of the people screaming for lunar blood. And Venus was here telling him it was too late, that everyone on the moon believed him to be a war monger, believed him to desire their deaths as much as Beryl, the loudest and scariest dissent voice among the people he was trying to dissuade.

Venus' hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality, and she looked right into his eyes. Tried to smile. "No. _We_ would never."

But the smile didn't reach her eyes. "But we are not allies, Prince. There is a tension between the kingdoms I have never felt before." She looked away, shuddered. "I can _feel_ it. I shouldn't even _be_ here."

He shut his eyes. Tried to breathe, to find air in the airless room.

"But I did come for a reason." Venus was speaking and the words refused to resonate, to coalesce into reason.

Something cold and heavy pressed into his palm, a metal that shimmered a golden silvery hue unlike what he'd seen before, a locket in the shape of a star. "It's Princess Serenity's, obviously," Venus was saying, her words fading in and out in Endymion's ears. "She doesn't know I'm here, and I'm loathe to know what I have to deal with when I get back. But I know she'd want you to have this."

He didn't look up, didn't look at her at all.

The sympathy was back in the senshi's eyes, "Endymion, I'm sorry I couldn't bring her here one last time to say goodbye."

Slowly he forced himself to realize what Venus was saying, before it was too late. "You can't take her from me," he managed to choke out.

"She's the heir to the entire Silver Millennium. It's far too dangerous for her to be in enemy territory."

"I'm doing everything I can-"

"It's not enough." Her words weren't harsh, just simple statement of fact.

"Then let me go there, let me talk to the queen-"

"Are you crazy?" Venus shook her head and turned to leave. She knew there would be hell to pay with Serenity, but she expected Endymion to be more reasonable. "Goodbye, Prince Endymion." _You have a broken kingdom to contend with and I have a princess to deal with,_ she thought. _And you and I may yet meet on the battlefield._

"Sailor Venus."

She turned and faced him, politely ignoring the brightness of his eyes, and white knuckles where he grasped the locket.

"I would never let anyone hurt Serenity. I would die first."

She nodded. "I know." Turned away. "But that doesn't change anything."

The last rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon as she left, the moon and the evening star blooming over the horizon in silent witness to the emptiness she left behind.


	13. Chapter 13

now you're just somebody that i used to know

* * *

><p>He kept his arm around her the entire night, fingers digging into her waist just slightly, arm stiff and face held away from her.<p>

Beryl grit her teeth and tilted her hip into his, slightly. "Are you ever going to let me out of your sight?"

"No," Endymion answered, not moving his arm from her. "Why else do you think you are my personal guest this evening?"

"Keeping me out of trouble," she tsked, sending cool green eyes over Endymion's guards, and the four kings, quietly posted around the ballroom. There were whispers and glances and no one was dancing. There was not much to celebrate, despite the occasion.

"If only it were that simple," he said.

Beryl reached and brushed a lock of hair back from his eyes, daring him to jerk away from her touch- here in front of so many people. Watching them. "As long as we are here together, for appearances, you could very well take ... advantage of the situation." She smiled slowly, let her eyes and body language speak of promises she was more than willing to fulfill. He blanched and looked away.

"You aren't my type."

Beryl laughed then. She couldn't help it. "Your highness, I'm _everyone's_ type."

He sighed, took one more glance around the room. Tensions were high and Beryl wished she could be speaking with the people on the floor, confirming suspicions and gathering support, rather than on the prince's arm. The one place she had always hoped to be, the one place she did not want to be tonight. And he knew it. That was his plan, after all.

"You know, you and I - we could have something great," she said, without a hint of wistfulness. Instead, amusement colored her voice. "At least we match wits."

"Please don't insult me by comparing us that way," he snapped back, through a false smile.

"Have no doubt, you'd be mine," Beryl said, her hand twining around waist to pull them together for a dance, "if you met me first."

"Beryl," the prince took her hand and brought it to his lips, politely declining the dance with a bow and step back. "I _did_ meet you first."

He left her on the dance floor with a courteous excuse, leaving her in the hands of one of his men.

She turned her charms on him, instead.

* * *

><p>guys I'm sorry but SilMil Beryl is the best. idk why.<p> 


	14. Chapter 14

So I got some prompts from a fellow fan to write about my OTP so here's some random Usa/Mamo drabbles from all over canon (but they are canon. or supposed to be). Sorry it's not something more special.

heh.

* * *

><p><em>When I'm on the edge of insanity, I'd hope you'd come to save me.<em>

Between Dream Mirror attacks, final exams, two final thesis essays and a national standardized language test, registering for next year's classes and his adviser on his back to pick a major already, Mamoru felt like a walking experiment in sleep deprivation.

Days were blurring together and he found himself falling asleep for hours and not feeling any better, dizzy when he sat up and coughing at night. He brushed it off as stress but knew it was no excuse, the girls had it just as bad as he did, worse even.

When he didn't come to Sailor Moon's aid in a battle, Usagi would be cross with him for nearly a full minute or two, and he'd have to make it up with some sort of purchased confection or promise of future recompense. He was already in really deep with favors owed to her, actually, now that he thought about it.

And lately it wasn't even that, he had canceled dates, unreturned phone calls and missed group outings to answer for... he was terrified. How long before she just gave up on him altogether? He couldn't even remember the last time he saw her outside of throwing a rose in battle and quickly returning home to collapse in exhaustion.

With the banging on the door he realized he had slept right through the phone ringing. He had dozed off over his study guides in the early afternoon and by now long shadows of late evening snaked through the apartment. A million curse words shuttered through his head in the time it took her key to click open the lock and her footsteps to pad through the doorway.

But before he could open his mouth to issue forth apologies and beg forgiveness for missing dinner, she just bent and kissed him and for a few peaceful, blessed seconds nothing existed except her fingers on his chin and her bangs tickling his forehead.

Then he was looking into wide blue eyes that just barely masked deep concern with mock-reproach.

Usagi rested a large brown bag on the floor beside him. "I brought dinner," she said, with a motherly grin. "You need to eat, mister."

At the delicious smell of warm bento take-out, Mamoru realized he hadn't eaten since breakfast. Or had he even had anything besides coffee that day?

"Don't worry about a thing," she chirped, "I'll get this all set up-" plastic utensils, disposable chopsticks, napkins and canned tea all flew out of the bag with gusto and in an instant his coffee table was a make-shift dinner table with a make-shift dinner. Usagi looked ridiculously proud of domestic prowess, and he felt a smile on his face for the first time in days.

* * *

><p><em>I wait forever for the day when you'll see me as more than just a friend.<em>

"I used to think you were worst person in the world," she said, her head turned away from him, looking at the city lights. He could only see the back of her head, the part of her hair, curls at her neck and stress hunch of her shoulders, reacting to what he had just told her - to the situation - to the close space - the danger pressing down on them from every direction.

For a second her hand clenched. Then she turned toward him and smiled.

"But now... I think... second worst!" Usagi's cheeks flushed a little, and she turned away again, quickly.

Mamoru was sure Zoisite meant him to die here tonight, in the Starlight Tower. But the look in Usagi's eyes just before she glanced away made him want to fight death just that much harder.

* * *

><p><em>I need to gather the strength to just let go.<em>

The third train pulled out of the terminal through the blur of tears in Usagi's eyes. For the third time, she did not get on. The Narita Express Train ticket, the last thing Mamoru had purchased for her, was becoming soft in her hand as she ran her fingers over and over the perforations. "It's easy, just take it to Nippori station and you are only two stops away on JR ... Usako, are you listening to me? This is the quickest way to get home safe..." his hand on her waist, his eyes so kind.

She hadn't wanted to think about having to return from the airport, alone, empty with the spot beside her so much colder, so she just... hadn't.

Now she had to wait. Until she was ready. To face the world, so familiar and so unfamiliar at the same time.

Another train pulled in, passengers leaving nosily, tugging suitcases behind them, more filing on. No one gave the small, empty-handed girl a second look.

Usagi took a deep breath, nodded, and stepped onto the train just as the doors were closing.

* * *

><p><em>Your love hurts, stings, and is addicting. Is it poison?<em>

Mamoru could stand his own heartbreak, as gut wrenching as it was to imagine life without Usagi, he could bear that. It would protect her, after all, and that was his purpose.

Her heartbreak, however, was another kind of hurt altogether and he was utterly unprepared for the freight train of raw emotion that derailed into his rib cage when she brokenly apologized for bothering him all these days, with unshed tears in her eyes. That was true hurt.

And every time she looked at him with hope, biting on her lip, weaving her fingers together. When she still insisted on asking him, if maybe ... now...? Nothing stung like seeing that drop of blood on her lip, when she bit down too hard after hearing his rejection again.

But he couldn't stop himself from coming to her aid in every battle, even though he had to admit they could handle it fine without him most of the time. When he saw her he couldn't stop himself from starring, when she ran into him in the street he could never let go of her arms right away. Training his mouth to form her given name was still difficult. He lived for the look in her eyes when she saw him, that split second when she forgot they weren't together anymore and she was delighted to see him and for a second he was, too.

Lived for it and hated it because it still. hurt.

* * *

><p><em>I want you so bad, but you want someone else.<em>

"Oh, Mamoru-sama," Natsumi linked her arm through his, and he didn't pull away. "Since we have to work so closely in the Snow White play, let's walk home together."

The brunette shot Usagi a victorious look as she left, with her head pressed close to Mamoru's shoulder, as they talked quietly.

The door to the gymnasium closed behind them.

Dimly, Usagi was aware of Makoto slamming her fist into her palm, and the girls' conversation around her.

It was Naru who eventually came and put a hand on Usagi's arm. "Usagi, are you okay?"

Like a vibrating string in a hollow box, Usagi pulled on anger as hard as she could until it filled her until she couldn't feel anything else.

Anything painful. Anything scary - like that a gorgeous girl with shiny hair and olive-shaped eyes and a delicious foreign accent was alone with the man Usagi loved more than anything in the entire world. Or that he might never remember Usagi. Or that every day she fell deeper in love with him and every day he seemed to think she was weirder and weirder.

"UGH WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!" Usagi wailed, "Stealing the part that's rightfully mine and trying to kiss my Mamoru-san? ARRRUUUGH!"

Anger was easy. Anger was safe.

And Usagi could do anger.

* * *

><p><em>Don't ever change. Not for me; not for anybody else.<em>

"So then he said," Usagi waved her hand like it what she was about to say should be obvious, "that Ami shouldn't spend so much time with me, because I'm, ya know." A shrug. "Such a bad student and probably a drain on her... what's the word? ... potential."

"Your principal said that?" Mamoru's incredulous tone must not have masked the anger underneath his words because Usagi flushed and mumbled back.

"He didn't know I was eavesdropping."

"Well, that explains a lot about today," he said thoughtfully. Glancing down at her, he could only see the top of her head as they walked along the deserted city street, bringing her home after dropping Ami off at her complex nearby.

"I thought if I stopped asking Ami for any help at all we could stay friends. If I was careful not to, um, be a drain on..."

"-her potential?"

"I know I was wrong," Usagi said quickly, "I mean, Ami made that pretty clear."

Mamoru sighed then, in that way he did a lot around her, deeply and methodologically. As if he needed a few moments to regroup internally before facing the task before him.

"When Ami thought she lost part of your friendship, she lost her direction for a bit," Mamoru said finally.

"Her direction?" She pulled on his arm until he stopped and faced confused blue eyes and wrinkled little nose. "Like a compass? North, South, East, West?"

"Usako-"

"If anything, Mamo-chan, if *anything* I'm like that thing you put next to a compass that makes it go all crazy." She waved her finger around haphazard arcs and circles in his face until he rolled his eyes and grabbed it.

"A magnet," he said. "And you aren't. I mean, if we want to start talking in metaphors I'm sure I could take this somewhere very poetic but for now let's just say, as far as Ami is concerned, as far as any of those girls are concerned, you are their focal point, their source of strength - just like they are to you."

Mamoru realized he was still standing on the street, awkwardly holding her pointer finger in his hand while she blinked up at him in the moonlight. Mentally rolling his eyes at himself, he threaded his fingers through hers, and started walking again.

"Usako, all I'm saying is, you don't need to change yourself, or your friendship with Ami. No matter what some blowhard in charge of Juuban public schools says. Okay?"

She was silent, mulling over his words.

"Hey, Mamo-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"What, exactly, did Ami-chan mean when she kept saying 'she wouldn't give up on that either'?"

"Usako," he said warningly.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't think you are going to get away with shamelessly carrying on extraneous flirtation with one of my best friends!" Taking a few jogging steps forward, she pounded his chest playfully with her free hand. "Hey! Answer me!"

"That's not what extraneous means."

"Don't focus on word-choice! Mamo-chan! Hey!" She pulled on his other arm while he fought back a smile of relief as he noticed the trouble that was clouding her eyes at the beginning of their conversation had faded away.


	15. Chapter 15

so on tumblr, idk, I was doing all these little shorts when followers gave me prompts, so I thought I'd put them here.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Setsuna<strong> and **Chibiusa** on a picnic! Preferably a friendship fic, not a romantic one._

"Where to today?" she asks, a smile playing around ruby lips.

In response, the princess tilts her head to the side, regarding the amusement hidden behind Sailor Pluto's striking hazel eyes.

"It seems like you already have somewhere in mind," she half-accuses- plaintively, as only the young can. Her cloud of cotton-candy hair and pink dress are fireworks, bursts of color in the grey haze beyond the space-time door.

"Indeed I do," Sailor Pluto responds with a wink. A wave of her hand and an early-20th-century park appears around them, shimmering in the mist like the illusion it is. Children in Victorian clothing scamper on the grass, kites fly in the breeze, and the London skyline rises in the background.

"Did you bring the food?" It is still an unfamiliar feeling for Pluto, smiling.

Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity raises the decorated woven basket, almost half the size of her small body, and mock-grimaces slightly at the painstakingly historically accurate mirage her best friend created for their "day out."

"Puu? Does this mean we have to speak English?"

* * *

><em><strong>King Endymion<strong> and **Mamoru** at the psychiatrist's office._

"I just plain don't like the guy," Mamoru huffed at the long-suffering psychiatrist, who merely raised an eyebrow at him while jotting something in her notebook. "And I don't see why I should have to."

"Because I am your future self," the other man answered, "it's hardly a conundrum."

"Well, that's why you are here," the woman said, before the younger man could retort. "To narrow down the reasons for and tackle the animosity between you two before a space-time continuum rip wipes us out of existence."

"There's no mystery. He's pompous and arrogant and controlling and look at that suit!" Mamoru gestured wildly at King Endymion, "It's _purple_ for god's sake! Who dresses like that?"

The king raised his eyebrows. "I get a myriad of compliments on this outfit, I'll have you know. And really, you can't claim that I hold the lion's share of arrogance or ceremony between the two of us and also I don't think I'm controlling at all."

Mamoru huffed and crossed his arms. "Right, reaching one thousand years into the past just to mess with my relationship isn't _controlling_."

"Let's work with this," the doctor chimed in, adjusting her fake wire-rim glasses.

"No, there are certain things I refuse to discuss-"

"Refuse to discuss THIS!"

Sighing, the doctor ducked just in time to dodge the pen bouncing off the wall and flying toward her face. "Let's take a break," she muttered, pinching her nose between a thumb and forefinger. "There is coffee in the waiting room."

"It's awful though," Mamoru said absentmindedly, as he rummaged on the nearby desk and grabbed some more pens to throw. "Like dishwater."

"Indeed," Endymion added, looking up from adjusting one of his many medals that had been knocked askew while avoiding Mamoru's make-shift attacks. "It could use a little chicory maybe."

"Or cinnamon," Mamoru added, uncapping a pen and aiming.

The doctor sighed, putting her face in her hands. "Pluto better pay me double for today."

* * *

><p><em>30th century<strong> Juno<strong> and **Pallas** play a game to decide who has to… do some sort of tedious, menial, responsible task. _

"That's the third time you've cheated!" Juno said, putting her hands on her hips and fixing her younger sister with a penetrating stare.

"Am not!" the girl in question retorted, the beads in her blue hair swinging as she shook her head violently.

"To be fair, can someone actually _cheat_ in jan-ken-pon?" Cere remarked from her perch on a parapet above the quarreling sisters.

"If anyone can, it'd be Palla," Ves answered, watching the drama unfold with amusement sparkling in her eyes. "Anything to avoid accompanying Usa-chan to another royal meeting with Crystal Tokyo waste management."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Usagi<strong> falls in love with **Saphir** (or vice versa) while she's captured by Dimande._

She never got used to the cold.

The rest, Neo-Queen Serenity slowly became accustomed to. The darkness, the emptiness, cold eyes of the subjects of the Black Moon as they silently regarded her when she passed. Demando's sneering taunts and wandering hands, and the devastating loneliness. All that she could lock away in her heart.

But not the cold - it seeped in through the obsidian walls and brought goosebumps to her flesh while she slept, swirled through the ruins of her destroyed kingdom- Crystal Tokyo defeated and crippled under the eerie light of a ghostly moon. Her friends and husband gone. Her child vanished into the mists of time, never to be born.

The grief was crushing.

Sapphir first came to her with hatred in his eyes and in the set of his jaw. He glared at her from his brother's side, his hands itching, Serenity knew, to lock around her throat.

But then the Earth moaned and began to die under Wiseman's rule - mirroring Nemesis. The whispers started - of an uprising, of the younger brother grown wary of Wiseman's twists of words.

As Demando's eyes grew more and more blank, Sapphir's began to brighten. He began to speak and think of a better future - of how to save them all, Demando, Esmeraulde, all of them, from Wiseman's toxic grip.

And Serenity listened. Because she knew about dreaming of a better life. He touched her hand, and Serenity forgot to feel cold.

When the uprising failed, and Wiseman killed all the rebels but Sapphir (spared only by his brother's insistence) - Serenity felt the cold crush in her lungs. She huddled by the window of the Black Palace, arms curled around her legs, tears freezing on her cheeks. The former Crystal Tokyo was still rotting away outside the glass.

Sapphir came and silently placed a blanket around her shoulders. His hands were bruised and his face swollen as he kissed her. It was the coldest kiss she ever felt.

* * *

><p><em>kid-ified <strong>Rubeus<strong> and** Chibiusa** crushing on each other_

"Stupid, he doesn't even _like_ chocolate!" Koan taunted, her face screwed up in childlike distain.

Chibi-Usa flushed. "I'm giving everyone in my class chocolate! and I had extra! So there!"

"He's not even in your class," she continued, "he's in _fifth grade_. Like me. And he doesn't care about your stupid candy, right, Rubeus?"

The red-headed boy flushed and darted a look at Chibi-Usa from the corner of his eye. She was stubbornly lifting her chin to the older girl, all pink hair and sparkling eyes and childlike defiance. His heart thumped a little.

"It's fine, Koan, whatever," he said, tucking the package of chocolate into his schoolbag with a shrug. "It was nice of her. Thanks, Usa."

Koan walked off, muttering in annoyance.

Chibi-Usa nodded curtly and ran off, to her fourth-grade friends congregating around the monkey bars.

Rubeus' hand curled around the chocolates in his bag, and he watched her go.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Rei<strong> and **Usagi** running a fan panel at a convention! Aaaaany kind of convention during aaany timeline_

"You're late," Rei snapped, looking up from where she was taping a banner to the front of a folding card table.

"Better late than clever!" Usagi said cheerfully. "As Minako would say." Huffing a little, she dropped a giant box on the table, making it wobble dangerously above Rei's head.

"Hey! Watch it Usagi!" Rei cried out, crawling out from underneath with a look of murder on her beautiful face. "You could have killed me!"

Usagi smiled charmingly at her friend. "I'd just bring you back to life."

There was a beat. Rei rolled her eyes. "What IS in that box that anyway?" She pulled to straighten the banner she had just hung. It read: _Minako Aino Fan Panel! Discussion of the pop idol's songs, life and philosophy!_

"Signed photographs obviously!" Usagi said, happily. She pulled out the glossy 5x7s and showed them to Rei. "Minako was more than happy to help out!"

Rei rolled her eyes at the over-the-top pose and Minako's wink and smiley heart where she signed her name.

"That girl-"

"We love her," Usagi said, happily setting up the photos for the fans to take.

Rei sat in the folding chair and thoughtfully leaned her head on her hand. "Yup. We do."

(AU where anime-Minako makes it big and the girls are her biggest fans omg!)

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chibi-usa<strong> and **Usagi** shortly after finding out their relationship after everythings okay again._

Usagi walked in the room right as Chibi-Usa was putting Luna-P away. The younger girl jumped. "Don't you knock?"

Usagi shrugged slightly, munching on a rice cracker as she regarded Chibi-Usa. "It's my house," she said through a mouthful of crumbs. Chibi-Usa mock-glared.

"Are you ever _not_ eating?" she mumbled, annoyed.

"Sometimes I'm sleeping," Usagi said cheerfully. She popped the last of the cracker into her mouth and walked into the room, flopping down on Chibi-Usa's bed. "What were you doing with Luna-P?"

"I was talking to Pluto," Chibi-Usa ran her fingers along the patters on her bedspread, not meeting Usagi's eyes. "She was saying everything is fine at home - with… with my mom -"

Usagi straightened and pulled nervously on one of her long pigtails. It was so strange to speak of Chibi-Usa's mother now that - now that Usagi knew who she was. Or, would be. "Oh um-"

"So she's saying I should go back," Chibi-Usa continued.

"Well… that's great!" Usagi said finally. "I'm sure they miss you. And I know you really want to be with your mom and dad."

Chibi-Usa finally met Usagi's eyes and nodded quickly. "Right. With my-" She cut herself off by launching herself quickly into Usagi's arms. The older girl's arms came up around her and hugged her tightly. "Thank you," Chibi-Usa whispered into the folds of Usagi's blue dress.

"Anytime," Usagi whispered back.

There was a pause.

"Now get out of here, I have to _pack_!" Chibi-Usa pushed Usagi slightly and the blonde fell off the bed with a grunt.

"Hey!"

* * *

><p><em>A young <strong>Princess Serenity<strong> and **Queen Serenity**! You pick the setting! ;)_

At the celebration of Serenity's birth, the Queen was never a foot away from her infant daughter - who was nestled sleepily in a bassinet of lace and silk. Every so often, when she felt she could get away with it, Queen Serenity would kneel down and kiss her daughter's soft cheek, and smell the sweet straw scent of her hair. The music and revelry went on around her without her even seeing it. All she could see was her baby.

When Serenity turned one, there was another ball, and the princess spent the entire time with wide, interested eyes - her chubby hand clutching at Venus' skirt as she toddled between admirers. When it all become too much, she hid in the silken folds of her mother's skirts. Every so often, the queen would kneel, run her hands through Serenity's soft pigtails and whisper that it was all okay.

When Serenity turned six, she was already at home in the bright, lively ballroom. Her giggles echoed off the marble walls as an exasperated Mars chased the younger girl through the dance floor. Bumping into legs and arms of the dancing couples, Serenity ran up the dais to her mother and gave a semi-toothless smile to the queen. "Be ladylike, dear," Queen Serenity scolded gently and the princess nodded and stood tall and serious next to her mother. The queen smoothed the folds of the princess's dress and smiled.

When Serenity turned twelve, she stood with her mother on the dais for the bare minimum of time expected - preferring to dance and eat and giggle with her guardians. She was becoming an accomplished dancer, and growing taller every day. For a moment, when watching Serenity gracefully decline a suitor's request to dance and place her pale hand on Jupiter's arm to be lead away, the queen was struck by how grown up her daughter looked. Queen Serenity blinked away tears before anyone could see.

When Serenity turned sixteen, everything had changed. The party was thrown, with no expense spared, but most attendees knew it was a ruse. Guards were posted at every door and sprinkled throughout the crowd disguised as guests - only given away by their watchful, serious eyes. The senshi weren't laughing. The yards of silk and sparkling jewels adorning the princess could not hide her pale face and bitten nails. The Earth hung in the sky like a portent of doom - its skies turned to charcoal.

As the princess prepared for her entrance into the ballroom, Queen Serenity put a hand on her daughter's shoulders. "Everything will be okay," she lied.

The princess' face crumbled and for the first time in a long time she threw her arms around her mother. The queen shut her eyes and breathed in the sweet straw scent of Serenity's hair. Then the announcement was made, the princess entered the ballroom on shaking legs.

Queen Serenity stood on the stairway, watching the party without really seeing it.

All she could see was her baby.

* * *

><p><em><strong>King Endymion<strong> and **Artemis**'s dialogue in front of Small Lady's suitor before her first date. ] ((or something about them and her first date. ^^'))_

"It's nine-thirty-two," King Endymion said, agitatedly running a hand through his graying lavender hair while he paced back and forth in the empty ballroom. The only light came from over the fully stocked but vacant bar stand.

"I thought you said her curfew was ten?" Artemis responded lazily, form his perch on a white-sheet covered table. He licked the end of his tail.

"But that's only half an hour to get back! And I thought she'd be back already, I mean, it's dark out and-"

"Crystal Tokyo is well-lit, crime-free and safe at all hours of the night," Artemis responded with a smirk. "Thanks in part to you. No need to worry."

"Maybe to _you_ there is no need to worry, Diana is fast asleep under the floor heater right now. _Your_ little girl is safe, _you_-"

"-lived with Minako when she was in high school," Artemis interjected. "I've had my fair share of worry when she was Small Lady's age…" Then his furry brow furrowed. "Actually, come to think of it —-"

Endymion and Artemis exchanged terrified glances.

"Where_ is_ Small Lady?!" Artemis said, panic suddenly in his voice. "it's _9:35_!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>King Endymion<strong> and **Neo Queen Serenity** as tour guides!  
><em>

"Hello and welcome to Crystal Tokyo Tours! I'm your special guest tour guide Ser—uh, ha ha, Usagi. And this is my assistant-"

"_Co_-tour guide."

"Assistant. Endy— uh, Mamo-ch- uh, Mamoru!"

"Smooth."

"Anyway, please enjoy our open-top Crystal Bus Tour! It's the best way to see the sights of our beautiful city! I'll be pointing them out as- what? OH _we'll_ be pointing them out as we pass by. No, there's only one microphone I just. Get your own! Hey! Mamo-ch—!"

"Okay, so ladies and gentlemen, on your left you'll see a plaque on the street marking the former site of the Crown Arcade. Well known as a hang-out for the senshi in their schoolgirl days. Also, rumor has it, the place where Neo-Queen Serenity would waste hours of her life playing video games instead of studying and then whine about her grad- hey, excuse you!"

"AND further down the road you'll see the entrance to Crystal Tokyo Park. I suggest you check it out later, as it's a fun place for the whole family. There is a carousel, kiddie train - oh, remember when you used to ride on the kiddie train as a college student, _Mamoru_? That was certainly a stra- HEY!"

"And straight ahead you'll see the gates to the Crystal Tokyo Academy, one of the best high schools in the city of Crystal Tokyo and even the world. Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity attends classes there, and is top of her class! Not to mention sweet, lovely and well-liked. Everyone wave! Wave, please, at my little gi- I mean. The princess."

"_If I may take over for a second?_ Thank you. I want to point out the view of the Crystal Palace from this angle, you can see the very top of the spire on the left-side. That's our- erm - _their_ private observatory. The views of the night sky are just breathtaking with telescopes designed by Sailor Mercury herself. It's open to the public two days a year so make arrangements if you'd like to visit. It's very romantic, too. I'm just- what?"

"A-and to your right, you'll see a giant crystal."

"To your left another giant crystal!"

"Well, that concludes our tour! Please take a map and we'll be happy to point you in the direction of historical sites and monuments -"

"-And the best desserts in the city!"

"-and educational museums-"

"And shopping centers!"

"-the largest library in the world-"

"and romantic date spots!"

"Thank you for visiting our city."

* * *

><p><em>heh. also if you want to see my tumblr it is Idesofnovember but god knows why you'd want to go down that rabbit hole<br>_


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